System and method for remotely monitoring, diagnosing, intervening with and reporting problems with cinematic equipment

ABSTRACT

A system is disclosed for communicating with, and receiving data representative of equipment state and status from, movie theatre equipment in theatres. The system includes a central computer storage unit for receiving and storing data representative of equipment state and status, and a plurality of remote computer storage units coupled to the central computer storage unit for transmitting data representative of equipment state and status. Each of the plurality of remote computer storage units includes a first remote computer storage unit coupled to at least one theatre automation unit for detecting and transmitting data representative of automation equipment state and status. The first remote computer storage unit is also coupled to at least one theatre projection unit for detecting and transmitting data representative of projection equipment state and status. The first remote computer storage unit is also coupled to at least one theatre audio processing unit for detecting and transmitting data representative of audio equipment state and status. The first remote computer storage unit is also coupled to at least one theatre power source for detecting and transmitting data representative of power state and status.

PRIORITY

The present application claims priority to U.S. Provisional ApplicationSer. No. 60/435,164 filed Dec. 20, 2002.

BACKGROUND

The invention generally relates to theatres and cinemas, and relates inparticular to networks of theatres and cinemas. Operational practicesmay vary among theatre and cinema networks and vary from screen toscreen as well as vary at different times of a day, week, month or yeardepending on the individuals operating the equipment. As a result,inconsistencies or problems may arise. For example, start times ofmovies may vary (due to crowds, weather or operational difficulties),volume levels may be changed, and equipment may be inadvertently lefton.

Equipment that is directly involved with movie presentation is generallymonitored and maintained since moviegoer audiences may complain if it isnot. Ancillary equipment, however, is often overlooked. As an example,pre-show advertising may be delivered by slide projectors, which areoften forgotten or ignored. Routine spot checks by the screenadvertising industry indicate that slide projectors have a deliveryfailure rate of over 10%.

The in-theater advertising industry depends upon statements fromtheaters as the sole means by which successful delivery of theateradvertising is determined. Statements are generated on a periodic basis(e.g., weekly) for the purpose of reporting the successful delivery ofadvertising content to the theatre's patronage. Statements are swornwritten statements affirming successful presentation of the moviepre-shows for a particular period of time and the patronage for thatperiod. Typically, statements are authored by a theater manager who doesnot always have a first-hand account of the delivery of each moviepre-show included in the time period of the affidavit. Unfortunately,use of statements may be subject to errors and omissions. Statementsoften reflect 0% delivery failures, which is typically not consistentwith the failure rate observed through routine spot checks.

In general, the theater manager may not become aware of a failure innon-movie-related equipment for many hours and often even days. Onceaware of the failure, the manager has no knowledge of the length of timethe pre-show equipment has been in the state of failure. Furthermore,once the manager is aware of the failure, reporting that failure to befixed by the screen advertising company remains a lower priority thangeneral operations of presenting movies and selling concessions.Failures do not always involve equipment breakdowns. Equipment maysimply be disabled for special events or other reasons and simply notre-enabled.

Lack of attention to non-movie-related equipment results in extendeddowntime. Lack of awareness regarding non-movie-related equipmentfailures results in errors and omission to the statements. Actual moviestart-times may vary from the schedule, which can lead to moviegoerirritation. Equipment is not always left in the proper state, which maylead to excessive wear and power consumption.

There is a need, therefore, for a system and method for monitoring,diagnosing and even intervening with and reporting problems with theatreand cinematic equipment.

SUMMARY OF THE ILLUSTRATED EMBODIMENTS

The invention provides a system for communicating with, and receivingdata representative of equipment state and status from, movie theatreequipment in theatres. In accordance with an embodiment, the systemincludes a central computer storage unit for receiving and storing datarepresentative of equipment state and status, and a plurality of remotecomputer storage units coupled to the central computer storage unit fortransmitting data representative of equipment state and status. Each ofthe plurality of remote computer storage units includes a first remotecomputer storage unit coupled to at least one theatre automation unitfor detecting and transmitting data representative of automationequipment state and status. The first remote computer storage unit isalso coupled to at least one theatre projection unit for detecting andtransmitting data representative of projection equipment state andstatus. The first remote computer storage unit is also coupled to atleast one theatre audio processing unit for detecting and transmittingdata representative of audio equipment state and status. The firstremote computer storage unit is also coupled to at least one theatrepower source for detecting and transmitting data representative of powerstate and status.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE ILLUSTRATED EMBODIMENTS

The following description may be further understood with reference tothe accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 shows an illustrative diagrammatic view of a system in accordancewith an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2 shows an illustrative diagrammatic view of a server assembly foruse in a system in accordance with an embodiment of the invention;

FIGS. 3-5 show illustrative diagrammatic timing charts for a signal logsin accordance with various embodiments of the invention;

FIGS. 6-8 show illustrative diagrammatic views of operational functionalviews of operation stages in accordance with various embodiments of theinvention;

FIG. 9 shows an illustrative diagrammatic view of a job schedulingreport table in accordance with an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 10 shows an illustrative diagrammatic view of a supporting datatable for use with the table of FIG. 9 in accordance with an embodimentof the invention;

FIG. 11 shows an illustrative diagrammatic view of an event report tablein accordance with an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 12 shows an illustrative diagrammatic view of an exposure report inaccordance with an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 13 shows an illustrative diagrammatic view of an event data streamtable in accordance with an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 14 shows an illustrative diagrammatic view of data flow duringdetection, interpretation and auto-correction steps in a system inaccordance with an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 15 shows an illustrative diagrammatic view of data flow duringdetection, logging, transfer and indexing steps in a system inaccordance with an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 16 shows an illustrative diagrammatic view of data flow during thereporting step in a system in accordance with an embodiment of theinvention;

FIG. 17 shows an illustrative diagrammatic view of data flow at the webinterface in a system in accordance with an embodiment of the invention;and

FIG. 18 shows an illustrative diagrammatic view of data flow at theclient-server in a system in accordance with an embodiment of theinvention.

The drawings are shown for illustrative purposes only and are not toscale.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE ILLUSTRATED EMBODIMENTS

In accordance with various embodiments, the invention provides acomputer-based system for monitoring the state and status of a networkof geographically dispersed in-theater equipment. State and status dataare collected and used in real-time or near real-time to alert operatorsof failures and to cause the dispatch of maintenance personnel to effectsystem repairs. Such failures as well as system restoration are recordedas system incidents. System incidents, in turn, are recorded in reportscomplete with fault assignment and operational down-time. Fault is thebasis for compensation in the form of make-good and/or rebate. In thecase of equipment breakdowns, these records may also serve as a basisfor component performance metrics and benchmarking.

A goal of certain embodiments of the present invention is to maximizesystem availability by quickly identifying and reporting system failuresthereby decreasing response and repair time, in turn, increasing systemavailability. The process begins when: (a) system components reportspecific error conditions to their respective host computers; (b) hostcomputers lose contact with system components; or (c) host computersdetect disruptive environmental conditions such as loss of power. Thisstate and status data is relayed back to a central computer that, inturn, automatically alerts a system operator, a field maintenanceprovider, or in-theater staff person, thus initiating the process ofsystem restoration. Earlier detection and intervention will result inhigher system availability.

A further goal of certain embodiments of the present invention is torecord and report the cause and fault of an incident as a basis forcompensation. State and status data is the foundation for incidentrecords that are further detailed by operators and/or field maintenancepersonnel. An important attribute of an incident is its faultclassification, which is either implicit in the data or explicitlyassigned by operators. Parties directly associated with systemoperations may then be held accountable for downtime. Compensation maybe calculated directly from the lost opportunity on a lost time, lostCPM, or other basis.

A further goal of certain embodiments of the present invention is torecord and report statistical performance metrics by theater for thepurpose of identifying best practices as well as identifying potentialtheater-specific environmental threats. Each theater has the potentialfor maintaining smooth operations conducive to high availability. Pooroperational practices or environmental issues may reduce availability.By comparing practices and environmental issues at high-availabilitytheaters to those at low-availability theaters, best practices and bestenvironmental conditions maybe identified. Best practices andenvironmental conditions may then be adopted by otherwiselow-availability theaters, thereby improving availability of the overallsystem.

A further goal of certain embodiments of the present invention is torecord and report statistical performance metrics by hardware componentsfor the purpose of identifying best-of-breed. Components from varyingmanufacturers will result in varying degrees of system availability. Byidentifying those models of component yielding the highest availability,the system may be scaled (extended) with best-of-breed components thusincreasing overall system availability.

A further goal of certain embodiments of the present invention is torecord and report statistical performance metrics by installation teamfor the purpose of identifying best equipment installation practices.Each installation team may bring individual skills and knowledge to bearon system installation. Some practices may result in higheravailability, reduced time/cost per install and reduced maintenance. Byidentifying those practices that yield the highest availability and thelowest costs, the system may be scaled (extended) with best installationpractices.

A further goal of certain embodiments of the present invention is torecord and report statistical performance metrics by maintenance teamfor the purpose of identifying best maintenance practices. Eachmaintenance team will bring individual skills and knowledge to bear onsystem maintenance. Some practices may result in higher availability,reduced time-to-fix/cost and reduced repeat visits per incident. Byidentifying those practices that yield the highest availability and thelowest costs, the system maybe maintained with best maintenancepractices.

A further goal of certain embodiments of the present invention is toautomatically attempt to self-correct certain types of failures. Thisincludes, but is not limited to, automatically resetting equipment. Inthe case of a failure such as loss of network connectivity, the systemmay allow some time for communications to resume. In the event thatcommunications do not resume within a pre-established period of time,the system may reset itself in an attempt to re-establishcommunications. This technique is not limited to internal systemcomponents, but may be employed with other devices connected to thesystem. Rapid, automated, self-correction techniques reduce time-to-fix,which increases system availability. Self-correction techniques alsoreduce cost-to-fix by eliminating labor.

A further goal of certain embodiments of the present invention is toserve as a platform for recording and reporting data for otherin-theater devices including, but not limited to traditional 35 mm filmprojectors, digital movie projectors, digital movie players, audioequipment, and ancillary equipment such as film platters. Such data maybe used for real-time failure resolution as well as statistical reportsin way similar to the other goals of the present invention.

In accordance with an embodiment, a system of the invention may providefor remotely monitoring the state of movie theatre equipment. The systemrecords status directly and/or records states and state-changes that canoften be diagnosed as status. The system alerts operators to errantconditions. Operators can interrogate the database of states, status andincidents for patterns of equipment failures and equipment operationalpractices. The system facilitates documentation of incidents, which areequipment interventions, repairs or replacements, associated withequipment status data. Operators may correlate the data with movieshowing data to reveal lost opportunities to show pre-show advertising.Operators may further correlate the data with attendance to reveal lostopportunities to show pre-show advertising on a per-impression basis.Such lost opportunities, otherwise known as miss-outs, may then be usedas a basis for compensation, make-goods or reimbursements.

In accordance with various embodiments, sensors may be used to monitoreach attribute of each piece of equipment. Data is collected from eachsensor and transferred to a central location that facilitates analysis.A general architecture for such a system may include a computer at eachlocation to log and relay data from the sensor to the central location.Transmission of the data from a set of remote theaters to the centrallocation may involve a WAN (Wide Area Network). A central facility forcollection and analysis of the data may include a relational databaseoperating on a central computer. This architecture is highly alignedwith an emerging digital screen advertising system. Furthermore, with atypical downtime of 10%, screen advertising is the biggest benefactor ofremote monitoring and diagnostics.

Because the remote monitoring application and digital screen advertisingapplication are so highly aligned, an embodiment of the system of thepresent invention leverages the digital screen advertising system as itshosting platform. The components of the digital screen advertisingsystem may be used as components of a system in accordance with anembodiment of the present invention.

A digital screen advertising system that may be used with certainembodiments of the present invention has a central computer that may beused as a regional server that exchanges data with computers at one ormore remote theater complexes 12 via a WAN 14. The WAN may be formed bya variety of technologies, such as satellite or terrestrial datacommunications. Each remote theatre complex 12 may include a site server16, a local area network (LAN) 18 and a plurality of screen servers 20.The site server 16 is the receiving computer at each theater complex;among other duties, it serves as a relay, providing a data path betweenthe regional server 10 and screen servers 20. The screen servers 20serve the content they receive from the regional server 10 onto themovie screen and sound system.

The digital screen advertising system maybe designed to deliver audioand/or video content, particularly advertising content, to movie theateraudiences. Such a system may also serve as an infrastructure forreceiving system state and status data. Such data may be used for remotediagnostics and performance monitoring. Each component in the systemserves a critical function and will be monitored for failure.

The screen server is connected to the largest array of equipment and istherefore in a position to report the majority of component state andstatus data. As shown in FIG. 2, a screen server assembly 22 may includea screen server controller 24, an audio processor 26, a network 28(e.g., a LAN), a digital projector 30, theatre automation equipment 32and an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) 34. Each component may bemonitored through an existing connection, a new connection or an addedsensor. All monitored data is subject to being logged, and logs arereturned to the regional server and available for generation of an alertand/or statistical and forensic analysis.

The digital projector maybe controlled remotely via a serial (RS232)cable or other digital connection. Through this same cable, it may bemonitored for state and status information including, but not limitedto, current state of operation, projector usage in seconds, lamp usagein seconds, configuration settings, and error conditions. Monitoring maybe further enhanced by including a light sensor aimed on-screen toensure that an image is, in fact, on-screen, that the image is brightenough, perhaps that it is in-focus, on-screen, and coincides with theintended image.

The theater automation provides state information through the use of aninterface. One such interface, an activation cable, provides the screenserver with information regarding the on/off state of movie projectorequipment. An alternate interface provides state and status of curtainposition, masking position, and house light level, as well as additionalinformation regarding the movie projector equipment.

Modem audio processors such as the Dolby CP650 sold by DolbyLaboratories, Inc. of San Francisco, Calif. have digital interfacesthrough which state and status data may be collected. Older audioprocessors could be equipped with an interface to provide similar dataincluding, but not limited to, power status, input channel selection,audio levels, and error conditions. Monitoring could be further enhancedwith one or more microphones in the theater. Such microphones couldmonitor audio levels and provide in-theater audio to ensure that itcoincides with the intended audio.

A UPS such as the Powerware Best Patriot 250 sold by PowerwareCorporation of Raleigh, N.C. may be used to continue to provide power tothe screen server in the even of power failure. Such a device alsoprovides power status to the screen server, notifying the screen serverof power failures and preparing the screen server for possible shutdownwhen the reserve power in the batteries becomes low. This and similardevices may also report other power issues such as surges and brownoutconditions. Power on/off and quality data is basic to equipmentoperation. Monitoring could be enhanced with one or more additionalpower sensors, in particular, sensors for detecting reflective harmonicsin the power line. Reflective harmonics are high frequency currentsoften emitted by power supplies and may be harmful to computerelectronics. The lamp house of the film projector is equipped with aparticularly large power supply.

Network availability is tested by way of the network interface card(NIC) or similar data communications device. Not only can local/internaltests run on the device, but connectivity to other network devices mayalso be tested. In this way, a screen server not only reports on its ownnetwork status, but also reports on the status of other devices on itsnetwork.

If the network is down and if the network is not redundant, the screenserver will not be able to report its own failure in real-time. One ormore proximal screen servers however, which have not lost generalconnectivity, will report a loss in connectivity with their peer.Furthermore, the screen server with a loss of network connectivity willlog the failure to be reported once connectivity is restored. In otherembodiments, a redundant network may be employed.

The system of the present invention not only detects, logs and reportserror conditions, but also non-error conditions. While the goals of thesystem are related to error conditions, non-error conditions oftenprovided clues to error conditions as well as verification and auditingof non-error conditions. All data, error-related or not, is returned tothe regional server where statistical and forensic analysis may beperformed.

The regional server is a larger computer or set of computers withrelational database(s), business processes and an operational interface.The regional server stores the logged data in such a way that it isassociated with a particular device or set of devices and time. Theregional server has an interface that facilitates display of the loggeddata.

In general, errors and non-errors are referred to as signals and signalsmay be presented linearly according to time as signal log timing chartsas shown in FIG. 3. Each of a number of signals may be logged andreviewed by the system operator. In particular, FIG. 3 shows a UPS powerrestore signal 40, a UPS battery normal signal 42, an operating systemsignal 44, a monitor process signal 46, a daemon process signal 48, aplayer process signal 50, a network ready signal 52, a player playingsignal 54, an activation signal 56, a projector lamp signal 58, a showtime signal 60, and a show start/stop signal 62. The use of a timingchart maybe useful in identifying originations of problems and sequencesof related failures. Signals are typically two-state, on or off, up ordown, activated or not activated, etc. However, a signal could have morethan two states. A tri-state signal (e.g., low, medium, high) may bepresented graphically through the addition of a third middle level invarious embodiments. In further embodiments, the signal could be scalar.Scalar data could be normalized to values from 0 to 1 and represented bycorresponding levels from bottom to top. High-resolution data could beabbreviated in this way, but meaningful interpretation might require analternate or supplemental data presentation form.

As shown in FIG. 4, a signal log timing chart may be viewed for aplurality of cinemas, each of which provides a cinema signals 70-82 asshown. The log may also include an additional site signal 84. A farthersignal log tiring chart may show an operating system signal 90, amonitor process signal 92, a daemon process signal 94, a network ready 1signal 96, and a network ready 2 signal 98.

The log signal timing charts illustrate how signals often operate inpatterns. It is when the pattern breaks that there is usually an errorcondition. Signals may be view in any number of ways. FIG. 3 showsmultiple signals at a single screen server location over a three dayperiod (Dec. 11, 2002 to Dec. 13, 2002, inclusive) as shown in the datefield 64. FIG. 4 shows one signal from each of multiple screen serverswithin one location for a three day period (Oct. 9, 2002 to Oct. 11,2002, inclusive) as shown in the date field 86. In alternateembodiments, presentations need not be graphical, but could be textual.

Site servers serve largely as passive relays. As such, a site server isnot typically directly connected to any array of equipment as are thescreen servers. Nevertheless, a site server performs networkconnectivity signal reporting on both the local and the wide areanetworks for example, for a two day period (Nov. 26, 2002 to Jan. 28,2002, inclusive) as shown in the date field 88 in FIG. 5. Similarly, theRegional Server reports only connectivity to the sites.

Error detection may occur local to the source, at a peer or othernetwork device in the path to the Regional Server, or at the RegionalServer. When an error condition is detected at the screen server, alocal process will initiate one or more actions including but notlimited to (1) recording and reporting the condition to the centralregional server and (2) attempting to fix the problem automatically.

Error conditions are recorded in log files that are transferred via LANto the site server then relayed by the site server via WAN to theregional server. The regional server reads and inserts the log data intoits database. Along the way to the database, processes analyze the logsand flags undesirable conditions (errors and warnings) as an indicationof alert status. Flagged data is displayed on an operator's console forimmediate attention. Alternatively or in parallel, the flagged data istransmitted to an alternate device including but not limited to an emailinbox, a mobile personal pager, PDA or text-messaging cell phone. Analternate transmission means could incorporate a wireless technologysuch as WIFI standard device or BLUETOOTH standard device from the siteserver at the theater to a communication device monitored by theaterpersonnel.

As generally shown in FIGS. 6-8, a system in accordance with anembodiment of the invention may resolve a wide variety of failures. Forexample, a system in accordance with an embodiment of the invention mayinclude a digital projector 100, a screen server for screen x 102, aregional server 104, a system operator 106, inventory 108 and a fieldservice support unit 110. Certain error conditions may be fixedautomatically. Such an error may be caused when a device hangs orotherwise becomes unresponsive. In such cases, the screen server willreset the device as a means of attempting to clear the error. Attemptsto restore device functionality are logged and transmitted to theregional server to be recorded. Once in the central error queue, anoperator will be alerted. For example and with reference to FIG. 6,during use, a lamp failure signal 112 may be transmitted from thedigital projector 100 to the screen x screen server 102. A lamp failureat screen x signal 114 may then be transmitted from the screen x screenserver 102 to the regional server 104. A lamp failure at screen x signal116 may then be transmitted from the regional server 104 to the systemoperator 106.

An operator is alerted to the error condition through the operatorinterface or in some other electronic way such as an email sent to apersonal digital assistant (PDA), cell phone or paging device. Theoperator will review the error condition and may review logged eventsbefore and after the error condition started. The operator may alsocontact the theater and request additional information. Once theoperator has affirmed the error condition, he or she will create anincident record. The incident record will be associated with theerror-condition data through period of time and location identifier. Asshown in FIG. 7, reviewing and incident reporting signals 118 may passbetween the operator 106 and the regional server 104.

The operator may then initiate a service call. Additionally, theoperator may also initiate shipment of component(s). As shown in FIG. 8,a shipment of one or more components (e.g., a new lamp) may be made asshown at 120 following verification with the regional server 104 asshown at 122. Field service personnel may then be dispatched to go tothe digital projector as screen x 100 as shown at 124 followingverification with the regional server 104 as shown at 126. The emailorder identifies the required component, ship-to address and shipmethod. Enhancements facilitate a shipping label to be automaticallyprinted and affixed to the order as well as a return shipping label forcases in which equipment should be sent back to the manufacturer or to adepot for evaluation and/or repair.

All communications are captured in the system. Anywhere possible,communications are electronic. For example, the operator's initiation ofthe field service call is facilitated through interaction with theoperator's interface. The system then sends the service requestelectronically. This process has three major benefits: (1) the messageis accurate and complete; (2) automation reduces labor cost; (3)transmission of the message is recorded and time-stamped within thesystem, thus making the incident fully auditable.

Receipt of the message is acknowledged by the field service providerand/or by the inventory shipping facility through a similar andautomated process. This can be facilitated in a number of ways. First,email messages can be sent return receipt requested, which would causeautomatic acknowledgement. In the case of field support using a PDA,pager, or cell phone, receipt can be acknowledged manually throughtwo-way messaging using keywords that can be read automatically by thesystem or through a web interface, mobile CPDA, cell) or otherwise. Allacknowledgements are recorded, time-stamped, and indexed with theappropriate incident record by the Regional Server when received.

The process is complete when the field service provider notifies thesystem operator that the error condition has been fixed. The operatordocuments any necessary final notes then closes the incident.

Some incidents need not be initiated by an operator, but can beinitiated automatically. When a bulb fails, no investigation isnecessary. The system can automatically initiate creation of an incidentand request shipment of a bulb. Receipt of the new bulb may not beacknowledged, but restored operation of the projector implies resolutionof the incident and the record is automatically closed.

Reports are typically generated for one of two reasons, accounting orperformance review. Assuming that not every show will be successfullydelivered, the question becomes one of monitoring the magnitude of loss,overall and by contributing party. Parties involved with the system willeach account for some lost opportunities to show content. This includes,but is not limited to, the exhibitor theater staff, installation crew,maintenance crew, software development and operations, hardwaremanufacturer, and content provider.

The job scheduling report (JSR) is the top-level accounting report. Eachjob scheduling is a convergence of a job and a pre-show opportunity. Asshown in FIG. 9, a job scheduling report may include a category ofcomplete instances as shown at 130, and a category of incompleteinstances as shown at 132. Instances are complete when the job waspresented at the scheduled pre-show opportunity. Instances areincomplete when the job was not presented at the scheduled pre-showopportunity. The job scheduling report also includes a category namedincomplete breakdown as shown at 134 that includes exhibitor data,hardware data, software data, content data, bugs data, installationdata, maintenance data and unknown data. The incomplete breakdowncategory 134 is a categorization of incomplete schedulings by faultcategory. Fault category is indicated explicitly by an incident orimplicitly by system state. The JSR lists schedulings as an actualnumber as well as a percentage. In this way, the system of the presentembodiment contributes data to the screen advertising system in anintegrated way and significant areas for compensation and/or improvementbecome apparent to the viewer.

While the JSR displays success and loss on a per job/show basis, not allshows are considered equal. The more patrons in the show, the morevaluable the show is considered to be. This is because the goal of theadvertising job is to reach as many patrons as possible and some showshave more patrons than others. Each instance of an advertising job thatis presented to a patron is considered to be an impression. Impressionsare measured in units of one thousand (1,000), the cost of which isreferred to a cost per thousand (CPT). With the box-office ticket salesdata, this report may also be adjusted for number of patrons. In thisway, lost opportunities may be displayed on an impression basis andmake-goods or reimbursements may be analyzed on a CPM basis.

Each actual value in the JSR is hyperlinked to its supporting data. Forexample, FIG. 10 shows supporting data for a plurality of shows (asshown at 140) that have had errors. The reason for the error is shown at142 and the table provides the breakdown data for the incompletebreakdown 134 shown in FIG. 9 for each of the shows 140. Supporting datais the list of incidents or error condition responsible for the missedpre-show opportunities within each cell of the table. Each incident canbe responsible for 0 or more job scheduling failures.

Each incident or error condition can, in turn, be browsed to revealspecifics of the event in an event report table as shown in FIG. 11.Each event is identified by a site 150, screen 152, a start date 154 anda duration 156. Each incident is typically assigned a faultclassification. In this way, missed schedulings for a particularincident contribute to the statistics in the JSR. The event report tablealso identifies whether the event was resolved 158, the impact 160, thecomponent 162 and the fault class 164. Messages 166 and notes 168 arealso provided as well as an identification of the shows that wereimpacted 170.

Incidents and incident management are a means by which management mayreduce lost opportunities to display pre-show content. It is, however,the content that is the revenue generator. Therefore, reports must alsoreveal lost opportunities on the basis of an individual piece of content(job). The advertiser cares little about the number of schedulingopportunities lost at a site; however, the advertiser most definitelycares about the successes and losses related only to their job(s).

Integrating job scheduling data with the exposure reports of the digitaladvertising system facilitates reports detailing lost opportunities.FIG. 12 shows an exposure report for a particular job 180 assigned to aclient. The report includes the show 182, the show date 184, the showtime 186, the show miss reason 188, the movie 190 and the release 192.In the case where a job was sold based on a flight of showings, thisreport becomes the accounting basis for a make-good.

The processes of the system of the present embodiment perform thefollowing tasks: detection, logging, transfer, indexing, interpreting,alerting, auto-correction, and reporting. Detection is the process ofsensing the current state, status, condition, or activity of a device.Logging is the process of storing the status along with time/date,location, device ID. Transfer is the process of moving the log data tothe central server, typically by way of the Site Server. Indexing is theprocess of recording the data into a database according to time/date,location, and device ID. Interpreting is the process of comparing thedata to conditions known to be errors. The process of alerting is toconstruct an electronic message to be read by a person. The process ofauto-correction attempts to reset equipment if possible. The process ofreporting is the presentation of data organized for statistical analysisor forensic study.

The system of the present embodiment collects and logs errors as well aspolls for state and status at regular intervals. This collection andlogging is performed at the Screen Server or equivalent. Each monitoreddevice is connected in some form or fashion to the Screen Server or itsequivalent. Monitored components include, but are not limited to, thedigital projector, theater automation, uninterruptible power supplies,and network.

The digital projector is connected to the screen server in two ways, thefirst is the video cable which provides the projector with the videosignal to be rendered onto the screen. The second connection is a serialcontrol cable. Through this cable, the screen server is able to turn thedigital projector on and off at appropriate times. It is also throughthis cable that the digital projector provides state and statusinformation.

State and status of the projector include, but are not limited to, on oroff and with-error-condition, with-warning-condition, fully-operational.Error conditions include, but are not limited to, lamp failure andcritically high operating temperature. Warning conditions include, butare not limited to, lamp age and excessive temperature.

State and status data is recorded during normal state change activitiessuch as starting and stopping the pre-show, is recorded at the time ofunexpected state change events such as loss of power and is recorded atregular intervals such as every 60 seconds.

State and status data is logged as an event stream with time stamps foreach event. Log data may not always be in human readable format and israrely isolated to the status of just one device. For illustrativepurposes, however, FIG. 13 shows what an event data stream may looklike, with date 194, time 196 and messages 198 listed in a streamingfashion.

During use, a screen server 200 may perform detecting 202, interpreting204, logging 26, transfer 208 and auto-correction 210 as shown in FIG.14. The screen server 200 receives an input signal 212 from a digitalprojector 214, and also receives input signals 216, 218, 220 and 222from theatre automation equipment 224, a power supply or UPS 226, anetwork interface 228 and an audio processor 230 respectively as shownin FIG. 14. The signal 212 from the digital projector 214 indicates thatthe signal is undesirable. All the signals are interpreted, and thesignal 212 generates an auto-correction. Auto-correction will attempt toreset the device or otherwise clear the undesirable condition. As shownin FIG. 14, the auto-correction system is attempting to correct theundesirable condition by sending a reset signal 232 to the digitalprojector 214.

Another example of an error could be a loss in network connectivity. Ifthe network is down for more than a pre-specified tolerance of time, theauto-correction process may attempt to reset the network interface card(NIC) by rebooting the host computer. The auto-correction process maytry to reset the host computer periodically, perhaps once per day, untilconnectivity is re-established.

If, in the last example, the NIC has stopped working, signals from theeffected screen server would never reach the regional server. Thecondition however, will be recognized by one of the peer computers. Oncea computer looses contact with a peer, it will log and transfer thestatus data back to the regional server, which will interpret the dataand issue an alert.

The theater automation is connected to the screen server or itsequivalent by means of an activation cable. The activation cable ispackaged as a 110 volt AC plug connected via digital cable to a gameport connector (DB15). Inside the 110 volt AC plug is a circuit whichwhen energized by 110 volt AC closes contacts. The contact closure canbe read by the screen server or its equivalent as a game port button onedown event. In this way, the screen server can detect power to theactivation cable. The activation cable is plugged into a 110 volt ACoutlet which is controlled by the automation. When the automationdetects that the feature film projector has shut down, it energizes this110 volt AC outlet. When the automation is triggered to begin the startof the movie, it de-energizes this 110 volt AC outlet at the same timethat it turns the feature film projector on. By monitoring the game portbutton one, the screen server can not only control the state ofpre-show, but also monitor the state of the auditorium. The automationdata is logged in a way similar to the digital projector data.

The next generation of digital automation interface (DAI) provides muchgreater state monitoring. The digital automation interface is a circuitthat controls and monitors many aspects of the state of automationincluding, but not limited to, screen masking position, house lightlevel, and fire alarm status. The screen server or its equivalent willcollect this data as a means of increasing the scope of in-theaterequipment monitored.

The network is monitored primarily through attempted to communicate withother network devices. The UPS is monitored for power and batterystatus. Each of these devices can be listened to or polled for state andstatus data Like the digital projector and the DAI, data is time-stampedand logged in a file.

The audio equipment is not currently monitored, but could be monitoredusing a similar mechanism. Interesting data would include input, output,and volume settings as well as other configuration settings. Like theother monitored devices, data would be collected, time-stamped andlogged.

In the case lamp failure, the alert process will tolerate severalinstances of failure in a row, recognizing that the screen server willcontinue to try to ignite the lamp. When the logs indicate that the lampdid not ignite after several attempts, the lamp is assumed to be infailure and the alerting process generates an alert.

In the case of the excessive activations, the alerting process willagain tolerate one or more isolated instances of deactivation andreactivation as noise. However, when a threshold number of cycles isreached within a short period of time, the alerting process willinterpret this as an implicit error condition and generate an alert.

Signal data is logged and transferred to the regional server, whichwould interpret the condition and could issue an alert. Alerts areissued when auto-correction fails or when auto-correction is not anoption. As shown in FIG. 15, communications between a screen server 240,site server 242 and a regional server 244 may involve the detecting,logging and transferring of data. For example, the screen server 240 mayinclude a detecting unit 246, an interpreting unit 248, a logging unit250, a transfer unit 252, and an auto-correction unit 254. The siteserver 242 may also include a detecting unit 256, an interpreting unit258, a logging unit 260, a transfer unit 262 and an auto-correction unit264. The regional server 244 may include an auto-correction unit 266, adetecting unit 268, a logging unit 270, a transfer unit 272, aninterpreting unit 274, an alerting unit 274, an indexing unit 276, and areporting unit 280. As shown for example, error detection data may flowfrom the detecting unit 246 of the screen server 240 to the logging unit250 and in turn to the transfer unit 252. Error detection data also mayflow from the detecting unit 256 of the site server 242 to the loggingunit 260 and in turn to the transfer unit 262 together with error datafrom the transfer unit 252 of the screen server 240. The combined errordata may then be transferred from the transfer unit 262 of the siteserver 242 to the transfer unit 272 of the regional server 244. Errordetection data may also be transferred from the detecting unit 268 ofthe regional server 244 to the logging unit 270 and in turn to thetransfer unit 272. The combined error data may then flow to theinterpreting unit 274 and then the alerting unit 274 as well as to theindexing unit 276 as shown. Error data may then be transferred from theindexing unit 276 to the database 282 as shown. The screen server 240will return most of the data regarding state and status of equipment.All computers can return at least network and power status data. Statusdata is ultimately indexed into the database. It is also subject tointerpretation by the interpreting process and subject to alerting if itmatches a condition known to be undesirable. As shown in FIG. 16,reporting data may then be transferred to the reporting unit 280 of theregional server 244. Alerting may take the form of a simple electronicnotification and it can additionally take the form of request forservice and/or request for equipment.

The alerting process is not limited to a single stream of signal data,but can also analyze multiple heterogeneous streams from the same screenserver assembly. The alerting process can similarly analyze multiplehomogeneous streams from a plurality of screen server assemblies. Inthis way, it can identify error conditions more specifically or morecomprehensively.

An example of heterogeneous data analysis is the comparison ofactivation signal data to show schedule data. If the screen serverassembly is not activated consistent with the show schedule for thatcinema, then an error is indicated and an alert is generated.

Implicit error conditions are discovered by a pattern matching processthat seeks breaks in the pattern of operation by show, by day, and byweek. A break in the pattern is then compared to a set of know errorcondition patterns. If the process finds a match, then the patternanomaly is alerted and identified. If there is no positive comparison,the pattern anomaly is alerted and flagged as suspect.

Some patterns, such as a network or power outage, can be present at morethan one screen server or site server. In such cases, the patternmatching process will look for the same anomaly among its peers.

Indexing is the process of storing status data in the database alongwith the time/date, location and device identification. In this way, itcan be retrieved and or sequenced as part of a query by device, bylocation and/or by date. With data and location, it can also becross-correlated with show data that is part of the digital screenadvertising system.

Electronic notification is issued primarily through email. The email isaddressed to the person/party on record with the system for a particularerror condition at a particular location. The subject and body of theemail will address the nature of the condition detected. The body of theemail may also include recommendations to correct the condition. Forexample, in the case where the power has gone off, it may instruct therecipient to restore power, check the circuit breaker on the UPS, checkthat the UPS is plugged-in, check the circuit breaker to the outletwhich powers the UPS. Email can be sent to a standard email address;therefore, alerts can be sent to any cell phone, PDA, or handheld devicethat accepts email.

Electronic notification need not be email. Whether email or some otherprotocol or technology, the message can also initiate a service calland/or initiate the shipment of replacement parts/equipment. Forexample, if a bulb fails in a projector, the alert can cause a new bulbto be shipped to the location as well as an alert to in-theater personalto replace the bulb when the new one arrives.

Once the data has been loaded (indexed) into the database, it isavailable for reporting. If the database is relational, then SQL cantypically be used to select ordered subsets of data for the purpose ofstatistical, trend and forensic analysis.

Alerts are error conditions that require operator attention and verylikely require a field service call. Alerts are posted in an alertqueue. The alert queue is visible to and monitored by operators. Thealert is typically the starting point of an incident.

An operator will review an alert and may call the theater staff forfurther information. In the case of loss of connectivity the operatormight ask “Did the equipment loose power?” If so, the operator wouldwork with the theater staff to reestablish power. If not, the operatorwould begin troubleshooting the network and/or Screen Server PC itselfwith the theater staff as the eyes and hands. If the problem can besolved quickly over the phone, then the operator will document the callwith the alert condition as a resolved incident. If the operator isunable to resolve the error condition with the theater staff, then theunresolved incident is documented with the alert condition and a servicecall is issued.

Some alert conditions bypass the operator and go straight to servicecall. This includes, but is not limited to, a lamp failure. Lamp failureis automatically interpreted as an alert condition requiring a servicecall. An unresolved incident is automatically created and a service callis issued by the service call process.

The preferred method of the service call is issued through electronicmessaging. Email is used, but any electronic messaging system could beused. Emails are sent to the field service personnel specific to theregion in which the equipment failure occurred and specific to the typeof equipment that failed. Em ails are received in a typical mailbox or,more appropriately, through wireless portable devices such astext-pagers, personal digital Assistants (DAs) and text-messagingcapable cell phones.

Receipt of the electronic message is acknowledge either automaticallythrough a return receipt request, or manually through an operatorgenerated response. The response contains the unique incident identifierthat is automatically read by an inbound message indexer, which adds arecord of receipt to the incident stored in the database.

Once the service call has been completed and the error condition iscleared, then the service provider will close the incident by sending anelectronic message containing the unique incident identifier and akeyword, cleared. The inbound message indexer will record receipt in thedatabase and will change the state of the incident to be closed.Alternatively, the service provider can modify the incident directlythrough the web interface or can contact a system operator to do thesame.

In some cases, such as a failed lamp at a remote location in which thetheater staff is also the service provider, a new lamp will be shippedovernight to the theater. Shipment is assisted by the service callprocess, which notifies the theater staff of the incident and that a newlamp should be expected the next day, but also notifies the warehousewith a message that include the ship-to contact information.

There is always the possibility in an automated system that an incidentwill get lost or forgotten. To safeguard against this, an aging processwill review unresolved incidents daily and will alert operators to anyincidents that have not been attended within a preset period of time.

An incident is a record of a condition that required externalintervention on the system. An incident is often created automaticallysuch as in the case of a bulb replacement. However, incidents are alsocreated manually, particularly in cases that require troubleshooting. Anincident includes, but is not limited to, a start time, and end time,and error condition, and a resolution. Additionally, incidents almostalways have a fault classification. Incidents record each step in theprocess of resolution including, but not limited to, alerts issued toservice personnel, responses from personnel, equipment shippingrequests, and help desk entries.

Reports are the result of selection and presentation of data. Relationaldatabases typically have a query language such as SQL for accessing andsorting data according to specific attributes. The four primaryattributes of the data collected by the system of the present inventionare time, location and device identifier and device state. Selectingdata limited to a single device and condition then sequencing accordingto time, one may observe the changing states of that device. Basicinterpretation of the data is confirming that the states change asanticipated and flagging discrepancies. Similar analysis can be done bylocation. By storing the data of the system of the present invention inassociation with the data of the screen advertising system,discrepancies in the patterns can be associated with specific failuresto deliver content (advertising jobs).

Should the digital advertising system be connected to the theaters pointof sale ticket sales system (POS) and be collecting show timeinformation from the POS, then the system of the present invention maycompare actual equipment status with expected equipment status based onthe start times indicated by the data from the POS.

The interface for the system of the present invention has two forms,email and direct interface. Email is used primarily for alerting whilethe direct interface is used primarily for signal analysis, incidentmanagement and reporting.

The direct interface takes the form of a web interface to facilitateubiquitous access by all interested parties as well as facilitatefrequent updates to the software without requiring the distribution andinstallation of updated client software. FIG. 17 illustrates the web andapplication servers servicing requests from a web client on theinternet. As shown, the interface includes the internet 300, the webclient 302, the regional server 304, the screen server 306, the siteserver 308 and the database 310. The regional server 304 includes a weband applications server unit 312, an incident management unit 314, areporting unit 316, an indexing unit 318 and an alerting unit 320. Theweb and application services interact with the database through businesslogic processes; in this case, incident management processes andreporting processes. As shown, communications and data may flow from toand from the internet 300 to the web client 302 and the regional server304. Data may also flow between the web client 302 and the regionalserver 304. Within the regional server 304, data may be transferredbetween the web and applications server unit 312 to and from each of theincident management unit 314 and reporting unit 316. Data may also betransferred to and from the database 310 to and from each of thereporting unit 316 and the incident management unit 314.

An alternate system and method for the present invention could becharacterized as a stand-alone embodiment. In such an embodiment, theequipment may be installed specifically for the purpose of detecting andreporting error conditions with equipment in the field. Signal data maybe captured by one or more computers connected to remote devices.Economics would most likely dictate a single computer, comparable to asite server, for the purpose of logging and transmitting signals anderror messages back to the regional server or its equivalent. The siteserver or its equivalent could be directly connected to monitoredequipment or could receive data via LAN from special purposed devicesfor the purpose of detecting and relaying state, status, condition, andactivity data from the theater equipment.

The theater equipment need not be related to screen advertising, butcould include state and status data of other equipment including, butnot limited to, film platters, feature film projectors, feature digitalprojectors and supporting electronics.

Special purposed equipment can also serve as a means for resettingequipment in an attempt to clear an error condition. The rules ofautomatic equipment resetting could be part of the special purposedevice or could be in the screen server or its equivalent in which case,the screen server or its equivalent would direct the special purposeddevice to reset the errant equipment.

The screen server could be replaced by a network bridge/router devicethat could relay data directly back to the regional server or itsequivalent. In this scenario, there would be no general-purpose computerat the theater site. Rather, the theater site would be equipped purelywith special purpose detection devices that are network-enabled as wellas with a router/bridge device to relay data from the special purposeddetection equipment back to the regional server or its equivalent. Sucha solution suggests a simple communications protocol such as SNMP.

The screen server could also be replaced with a data file storage depot.Such a depot would be a general purpose computer or PC connected to theWAN and to the LAN. It would serve as the intermediary transport device,queuing outbound data files for transport over the WAN, especially whenthe WAN is satellite-based, but equally relevant when the WAN isterrestrial-based Inbound data files received from the WAN are stageduntil a screen server or its equivalent or a special proposed devicepicks it up.

The interface of an alternate system could be client-server system asgenerally shown in FIG. 18. Such a system may involve data flow directlybetween an application client 330 and an incident management unit 332and a reporting unit 334 of a regional server 336. The regional server336 also includes an indexing unit 336 and an alerting unit 338, and isconnected to the application client 330 via a local area network. Thesystem further includes a screen server 340, a site server 342 and adatabase 344 that communicated with the incident management unit 332 andthe reporting unit 334 as shown. In this case, communication isfacilitated over the local area network (LAN). The client software iscustom software that accesses the business logic on the server, which inturn accesses the data in the database. The business logic in thisthree-tier application could reside in a transaction server or othertype of application server. Many database management systems include abusiness logic layer which could also harbor the incident management andreporting processes. Finally, in a two-tier architecture, the businesslogic would be resident in the application client.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that numerous modifications andvariations maybe made to the above disclosed embodiments withoutdeparting from the spirit and scope of the invention.

1-18. (canceled)
 19. A method of determining equipment status based upondata representative of movie theatre equipment state changes, saidmethod comprising the steps of: retrieving and storing datarepresentative of theatre equipment status in a central computer storageunit that includes known status data representative of a plurality ofstate change patterns representing known status; receiving status datarepresentative of a status of each of a plurality of items of theatreequipment at each of a plurality of remote theatre screen assembliesover a plurality of instances during a period of time; comparing a firststate change pattern representative of equipment state changes to saidknown status data in said central computer storage unit and providingcomparison data; and receiving said comparison data and storing saidcomparison data.
 20. The method as claimed in claim 19, wherein saidfirst state change pattern is representative of changes in state of atheatre projection unit.
 21. The method as claimed in claim 19, whereinsaid first state change pattern is representative of changes in state ofa theatre audio processing unit.
 22. The method as claimed in claim 19,wherein said first state change pattern is representative of changes instate of a theatre power source.
 23. The method as claimed in claim 19,wherein said first state change pattern is representative of changes instate of a plurality of a theatre projection unit, a theatre audioprocessing unit and a theatre power source for a period of time.
 24. Themethod as claimed in claim 19, wherein said first state change patternis a timing chart pattern of at least two units of equipment for aperiod of time during which at least one of the units of equipmentcompletes a cycle of operation.
 25. The method as claimed in claim 19,wherein said system further provides alert condition data response tosaid comparison data.
 26. A method of determining equipment status basedupon data representative of movie theatre equipment state changes, saidmethod comprising the steps of: retrieving and storing datarepresentative of theatre equipment status in a central computer storageunit that includes known status data representative of a plurality ofstate change patterns representing known status for each of a pluralityof remote theatre screen assemblies; comparing a first state changepattern of a first theatre screen assembly representative of equipmentstate changes in said first screen assembly to said known status data insaid central computer storage unit; providing first screen assemblycomparison data; comparing a second state change pattern of a secondtheatre screen assembly representative of equipment state changes insaid second screen assembly to said known status data in said centralcomputer storage unit; providing second screen assembly comparison data;and receiving and storing said first screen assembly comparison data andsaid second screen assembly comparison data.
 27. The method as claimedin claim 26, wherein said first state change pattern is representativeof changes in state of a theatre projection unit.
 28. The method asclaimed in claim 26, wherein said first state change pattern isrepresentative of changes in state of a theatre audio processing unit.29. The method as claimed in claim 26, wherein said first state changepattern is representative of changes in state of a theatre power source.30. The method as claimed in claim 26, wherein said first state changepattern is representative of changes in state of a plurality of atheatre projection unit, a theatre audio processing unit and a theatrepower source for a period of time.
 31. The method as claimed in claim26, wherein said first state change pattern is a timing chart pattern ofat least two units of equipment for a period of time during which atleast one of the units of equipment completes a cycle of operation. 32.The method as claimed in claim 26, wherein said system further providesalert condition data response to said first screen assembly comparisondata and said second screen assembly comparison data.
 33. A method ofdetermining equipment status based upon data representative of movietheatre equipment state changes, said method comprising the steps of:retrieving and storing data representative of theatre equipment statusin a central computer storage unit that includes known status datarepresentative of a plurality of state change patterns representingknown status for each of a plurality of remote theatre sites; comparinga first state change pattern of a first theatre site representative ofequipment state changes in said first theatre site to said known statusdata in said central computer storage unit and providing first theatresite comparison data; and receiving said first theatre site comparisondata and storing said first theatre site comparison data.
 34. The methodas claimed in claim 33, wherein said first theatre site includes aplurality of theatre screen assemblies.
 35. The method as claimed inclaim 34, wherein each said theatre screen assembly provides to theassociated theatre site data representative of the status of equipmentat the theatre screen assembly.
 36. The method as claimed in claim 33,wherein said first state change pattern is representative of changes instate of a plurality of a theatre projection unit, a theatre audioprocessing unit and a theatre power source for a period of time.
 37. Themethod as claimed in claim 33, wherein said first state change patternis a timing chart pattern of at least two units of equipment for aperiod of time during which at least one of the units of equipmentcompletes a cycle of operation.
 38. The method as claimed in claim 33,wherein said method further includes the step of providing alertcondition data response to said first theatre site comparison data.